I’ve been saying for a while that Microsoft’s best bet from here is to turn the Xbox into a Windows box, update Windows to work decently on handhelds, and launch an Xbox portable. Kill the console/PC distinction and leave Sony flat-footed to compete with Nintendo.
The only challenge to this approach is Valve beating them to it from the other direction.
I like Steam because they are more upfront about what you get when you “buy” a game, but I don’t want Steam to become a mega corpo that has tentacles in every technological industries just like Google or Microsoft.
They still are a company first and foremost, and Gaben isn’t eternal. Their attitude can change as fast as getting a new CEO when Gaben steps down.
Nothing good comes out of a mega corpo getting bigger, and we have many examples of that.
Yes, but not by another mega corpo that tries to get into everything.
I mean, the real problem is that Alphabet and Apple should be dismantled in littles companies by anti-trust laws. Adding another third big player will only add another corpo to the duopoly.
I can build a new PC or whatnot, but one thing that has helped the Deck along is that it’s established a clear standardized set of specs that some developers have chosen to build for. Obviously there have been plenty of games that won’t run on the deck, but sites like ProtonDB basically create a sticker for “this runs well on the Deck.”
When they announced Steam Machines the first time, I thought it was a great idea because it would give PC devs a sort of baseline system to aim for, and then I was surprised when they launched and they were all sorts of different system specs. I’m still convinced that’s at least partly why they failed - if you buy a console like a Playstation or XBOX, part of the appeal is that you know exactly what you’re getting and what will run on it. If it says ‘PS5’, it’ll run on your PS5.
So hopefully if they try again it’ll be something along those lines, kind of like the Steam Deck.
I feel like in a few years Valve is gonna have another go at Steamboxes, and both Sony and Microsoft are going to end up being caught off guard.
I’ve been saying for a while that Microsoft’s best bet from here is to turn the Xbox into a Windows box, update Windows to work decently on handhelds, and launch an Xbox portable. Kill the console/PC distinction and leave Sony flat-footed to compete with Nintendo.
The only challenge to this approach is Valve beating them to it from the other direction.
MA is headed there. They are moving all of their office suite apps off x86 and into webview, which means they are platform agnostic.
I see them taking another stab at pushing ARM windows again. Maybe the Xbox mobile will be their flagship.
Maybe Steam will launch a phone in the near future?🤞
I like Steam because they are more upfront about what you get when you “buy” a game, but I don’t want Steam to become a mega corpo that has tentacles in every technological industries just like Google or Microsoft.
They still are a company first and foremost, and Gaben isn’t eternal. Their attitude can change as fast as getting a new CEO when Gaben steps down.
Nothing good comes out of a mega corpo getting bigger, and we have many examples of that.
But you don’t think a challenge to the duopoly of Android and iPhone would be a good thing?
Yes, but not by another mega corpo that tries to get into everything.
I mean, the real problem is that Alphabet and Apple should be dismantled in littles companies by anti-trust laws. Adding another third big player will only add another corpo to the duopoly.
Steam Deck put them back in the race already.
SteamOS is flourishing with the popularity of the Deck, helping Linux to become a stable gaming platform with Proton and driver support.
It’s also great as a HTPC when connected to a TV. HDR support for external displays arrived just recently.
I think it’s just a matter of time SteamOS jumping from Deck to custom PC builds.
What’s stopping you from building your own Bazzite Box right now? (ChimeraOS is great too. ) Honestly, the things that make me most excited are
the combined rumors of Valve developing for Arm and
the Asahi Linux presentation from Alyssa Rosenzweig that shows you can run modern games from steam on Linux on arm mac NOW. https://rosenzweig.io/blog/aaa-gaming-on-m1.html
Valve’s first party custom hardware is coming.
I can build a new PC or whatnot, but one thing that has helped the Deck along is that it’s established a clear standardized set of specs that some developers have chosen to build for. Obviously there have been plenty of games that won’t run on the deck, but sites like ProtonDB basically create a sticker for “this runs well on the Deck.”
When they announced Steam Machines the first time, I thought it was a great idea because it would give PC devs a sort of baseline system to aim for, and then I was surprised when they launched and they were all sorts of different system specs. I’m still convinced that’s at least partly why they failed - if you buy a console like a Playstation or XBOX, part of the appeal is that you know exactly what you’re getting and what will run on it. If it says ‘PS5’, it’ll run on your PS5.
So hopefully if they try again it’ll be something along those lines, kind of like the Steam Deck.
We have a steam box though. It’s called a steam deck via HDMI out with a controller